United Nations Environment Programme Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was created in 1972 following the United Nations Conference on Human Environment (UNCHE) in Stockholm, Sweden. The General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations (UN) set the goals and mandate of the UNEP in its resolution 2997 (XXVII). The mission of the UNEP is “to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

In general, the UNEP serves as a forum in which the member states of the UN can discuss environmental issues of international scope. For this, 58 member states are elected by the GA to serve as the governing body of the UNEP, which meets biennially and reports to the GA through the Economic and Social Council. The governing council has representation from different regions of the UN: 16 African, 13 Asian, 10 Latin American, six East European, and 13 Western European and other states.

The mandate of the organization evolved over time with amendments adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and during the 1997 session of the UNEP Governing Council meeting. Currently, the specific mandates of the organization include raising awareness about the environment globally and incorporating environmental considerations into all aspects of UN programs and activities from peacekeeping to disarmament and health to education.

The UNEP is charged with conducting scientific research and issuing reports about the human environmental problems and developments. When environmental threats are identified, UNEP monitors, gathers information, and calls for action to overcome these problems. The UNEP is the central coordinating body of all UN agencies on environmental issues. When the environment ministers from around the world met for the first time in Malmo, Sweden, they issued a declaration affirming the mandate of the organization and called for the institutional and financial strengthening of the UNEP in 2000.

One of UNEP’s most important roles is to help states develop international environmental law by facilitating conventions among states and meetings among scientists to provide expert guidance. The first convention coordinated by the UNEP was in 1973 on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Subsequently, there have been several conventions facilitated by the UNEP on issues ranging from migratory species, depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, biological diversity, pollution of the seas, persistent organic pollutants, and biosafety and genetically modified organisms.

The UNEP has nearly 600 staff members who work to accomplish the mandate of the organization and the goals set by its governing body. Half of the staff works at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi and the other half are stationed in various offices around the world to fulfill organization’s global and regional goals. The UNEP has eight functional divisions for assessment of environmental threats, policy development, policy implementation, helping developing nations adopt environmental policies, regional cooperation, finding synergy between multilateral conventions, communication and education on the environment, and funding environmental programs.

Because UNEP does not have the field experience, institutional capacity, or the funding to carry out all of its goals, the organization cooperates and coordinates with other UN organs to accomplish its goals through these functional divisions. For example, the Division of Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a joint effort between UNEP and the World Bank. GEF is a trust fund established by the World Bank in 1991. An advisory panel of experts from the UNEP examines the GEF funded projects. These projects are established with the goal of making progress on one of the major treaty areas on the environment. Another functional division of the UNEP, Early Warning and Assessment, works in collaboration with several global networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private companies, and state agencies to monitor emerging environmental threats.

Since its foundation the UNEP faced several challenges. First it was difficult to build consensus on issues due to conflicts between the advanced industrialized countries and the less-developed countries with competing opinions about environmental protection versus economic development. The UNEP has also been marginalized by donor countries whose financing is necessary for the success of the organization. Thus UNEP still lacks money and the organizational capacity to make significant progress toward meeting its mandate. The most important role of the organization still remains setting international norms on the environment and coordinating the overlapping environmental responsibilities of different UN agencies.

Bibliography:

Christopher Flavin, Hilary French, and Gary Gardner, State of the World Report 2002: Special World Summit Edition (Worldwatch Institute, 2002);
United Nations, Basic Facts about the United Nations (United Nations 2004);
Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe, and Roger Coate, The United Nations and Changing World Politics (Westview, 2004);
UNEP, https://www.unenvironment.org/.